That Strange Sensation

JP with Omni and Winteroak

“In for a copper, in for a gold, nnn?” Voah cocked an eyebrow back at Alcuin and nodded in the direction of the dark robes.

For a moment, Voah thought she saw the flicker of a devious grin flash across the man’s face, though it could have been a trick of the starlight, scant as it was, which made its way down to them from the heavens. The grin wasn’t there now but the Arbiter could still detect a modicum of excitement leaking from the hidden place behind his eyes. An eagerness… Voah noted it, but stashed it away for later.

Together the two watched the dark robes and just as before, followed them at a careful distance.

The lack of light due to the New Moon was a blessing this night. It hid their movements as they followed the solitary torch that illuminated the the group of dark robes.

Half a bell later they saw the group crest a particularly large dune and disappear over the other side.

Making their way slowly to follow the path taken, Voah started to feel the hairs on her arms and neck stand in the night air.

Carefully peeking over the lip of the dune, they saw a large circle drawn in the sand with torches standing at each of the cardinal points. In the middle of the circle stood a woman in flowing dark robes holding two incense burners. The seven dark robes positioned themselves around her in a rough semi circle.

Voah's teeth started to itch as they did in the presence of Magik. It didn't happen to the same degree every time, but upon sensing magik, Voah often felt a slow sense of grima, that strange sensation of disgust or repulsion by which one was overcome as when a knife is scraped across a ceramic plate, or some similar, awful noise or vibration. She closed her eyes and froze, tonguing her molars and chewing down softly, repeatedly to dampen the involuntary urge to writhe and squirm out of her own skin. The feeling brought her back to that old tower; the witch and her unhinged jaw... and she shook her head back to the present, visibly disturbed. The feeling would soon pass.

"Arbiter?" whispered Alcuin.

"It's nothing." responded Voah.

Voah quietly tucked the strange egg into the sand dune, unsheathing her sword as she lay, but she did not yet act, compelled to see what the dark robes would do next.